Best. Dog. Ever. He spent a fair portion of the day lying across Monty’s lap watching television. Then he came to Petsmart with me, where he promptly impressed everybody by getting so excited he couldn’t control himself so that I had to leave and come back later. The poor pup has probably never been in a Petsmart in his life, nor seen so many other dogs at once.

But then when I did come back, with Monty to help, Gunner amazed everyone by behaving as though he’d been coming to Petsmart all his life and, oh hi, look, there are other dogs here isn’t that interesting? He got carried away a bit a couple more times, but altogether did extremely well.

We also figured out how much fun it is to walk around the lake together off-leash (the lake is fenced, and rarely frequented by anyone else). I’m training him to recall on command, and he’s doing very well with sit and stay and come as well.

He and the cat are still not happy with each other. Inara is living in our bedroom now, and really hates being taken out to see the dog. He gets excited and scares her and … it’s just not a happy relationship right now. Hopefully it will get better.

Me Update:

Guess what? I looked really great today. I know that comes as a surprise. But everyone said so. My secret? My friend Mary Beth. She’s a custom clothier with this really cool service for professional women. Among other things, she came to my house and went through my wardrobe with me. She’s having most of my clothes tailored to fit better. She helped me clear out some things that just weren’t working for me, cataloged what I have, showed me new ways of combining and dressing up my things, and altogether made a whole new wardrobe out of what I already have–one that actually reflects who I am and the professional message I want to send. Amazing. Then she told me what to wear this week and said that I would immediately start getting compliments on my appearance. And boy did I ever. From the moment I walked into the office this morning to the end of the day with a visitor in our house, I got comment after comment. And it was all clothes I already have! Amazing. Check her out.

Lev Grossman announced the winner of the Great Magician Song Cover Version Contest. It wasn’t us. We didn’t even get an honorable mention, but that’s okay because there were so many great entries. I haven’t told the kids yet–I kinda forgot this evening. They’ll be disappointed. Then they’ll remember that we had a blast doing it and they’ll be glad we did.

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Gunner is settling in nicely. Biggest problem so far is that he won’t leave me alone long enough to take his picture.

Nosy Gunner

Well, that and the fact that he has been abandoned just a few times too many… and so when Carey left this morning he decided to go with him… by following his car… on foot… at full speed… clear to the highway where he ran into traffic. I could hear the honking, even though I was so far behind I couldn’t see him. Please don’t yell at me about this. It was a temporary oversight. I had to call Carey to come back. As soon as Gunner saw his car return, he calmed down and came running up to us.

Poor guy. He doesn’t know yet that he won’t be abandoned again. He also cries when I leave the room.

I haven’t told his whole story online because I don’t want it getting back to the wrong people. But he’s had it tough. And yet he’s the sweetest, calmest guy ever. And he adores the kids. The only way I can get a decent picture is to get them to distract him.

Hi! I'm Everett! I'm Gunner! I just met you and I LOVE YOU!

Everett and Gunner are exactly alike. Neither has ever met anyone who wasn’t their best friend. They already love each other immeasurably.

Gunner is also the smartest dog I’ve ever worked with. His foster mom trained him in basic commands–sit, come, down, off. Since he’s been here, we’ve added “heel” and “stay” and “shake” and he already gets what we want from him and is happy to comply. Such a great guy.

He also follows me around the house all day.

The only one not happy about the new arrangement is the cat. I hope she’ll get over it.

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Main announcement: We got a dog. Well, we don’t have the dog yet. But we decided to get a dog. Which is crazy, if you think about it. We don’t even like dogs. They poop. And not even in the potty. They also bark. And they lick things. You know. Dogs.

Would you say no to this face?

Don’t lie. You’d have taken him in too if he needed you. Long story, really, but this guy’s been through the mill. Abuse, abandonment, you name it. And as a bully-breed-mix and black to boot, he wouldn’t stand a chance in the adoption ring.

K and anyway. He’s an awesome dog. Took him to the vet today and everyone raved about how sweet he is. We get him for keeps this weekend. He’s staying with a friend right now, where he’s been since his rescue, until we have time to acclimate him properly to our home.

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Memorial Day! We spent most of the weekend finishing up our Minecraft-rendered cover version for “The Magician King Song” contest. So much FUN, so much WORK. With great fanfare, we introduce, “The Four Thrones of Castle Whitespire: Minecraftia Edition”:

Seriously, please check it out. The kids poured heart and soul into it. We are very proud, and it’s fun. Watch it. “Like” it. Comment on it. Make two hard little workers very happy. 🙂

We also spent time with friends Cathy & John and daughter Brittney, hung out with the abandoned dog they rescued and we’re considering fostering and MAYBE adopting (oh boy. Yes, it’s true… more on that later…).

Black pitt-lab mix... the combination is a death sentence at animal control... lucky he's got Cathy and John. And maybe us?...

Our college friends Tracy and Michele had us over for this bit of fun & the old-fashioned cookout. Yum! And then a great game of cards in which I TROUNCED everyone. Also the food was awesome. Thanks, Michele!

And also this:

(via my Facebook feed) On this day 70 years ago, a young American soldier watched his comrades dig a shallow grave for a sergeant who had gone berserk. The men who had been stabbed to death earlier that day on the long Death March toward POW camp, didn’t even receive that much honor. Remember their sacrifice. Honor Memorial Day all year long by following one young soldier’s three-year journey, reading about each day as he lived it, 70 years ago.

On May 28, 1942, we were made ready to march to our new camp. The Jap in command told us that those of us who had canteens would be permitted to fill them with water, and that they, the Japs, would not carry any water for us. We had very little time to fill the canteens and to fall in columns of four to start the march to our new Camp. We did not know how far we were to march, but we did know that we would march without any rest. In May the sun is very hot there and the temperature got well over the hundred degree mark. We found out later that it was twenty kilometers (12 1/2 miles) to Camp No. 3. (After comparing notes with men that had been on the Death March to Camp O-Donald after the fall of Bataan, we went through a part of what they suffered.) I cannot give full details of this march because we were many in number, and from where I was in the line of march, I could not see all that went on. I do know that two of the men died on the March. Others drank their water too soon after we started, and some of them fell out of the line of march and drank water from buffalo wallows along the road. I did see men fall with weakness and sickness, only to be prodded on with the bayonets of the Japs. I have stated earlier that I was not one to drink much water, so my canteen saw me all the way, and I shared a little with one other man. The two men that died on the march were killed by the Japs, because they were too weak to get up. After seeing them beaten and stabbed with a bayonet, we made every effort to carry those that were too weak to walk. We passed by Camp No. 1. Our men in the Camp waved to us, but we were not allowed to talk. The same thing happened when we passed by Camp No. 2. Finally we arrived in Camp No. 3, where I stayed until September 17, 1942… Read More…

On May 27, 1942, we were marched out of Bilibid, own [sic] to the railroad track, and there we were put into box cars as if we were cattle. The railroad cars were about one-third the size of the box cars here in the U.S. One hundred of us were forced into one car, and then Jap guards were put on top of the cars. We started our trip by rail which took us to Cabanatuan. We stopped many times on this trip, but we were not allowed to get out of the box car, and we had to stand all the way as there was not room to even sit or lie down… Read more…

Memorial Day Weekend! Woo-hoo! Time for barbeques, swimming pools, fun in the sun, relaxation, and — oh yeah — remembering people who died to serve our country. It’s also the perfect time for totally self-absorbed activities like creating a website about nothing but ME. So that’s what I did yesterday and today.

It’s called “Altogether Heather” (haha you see what I did there? I rhymed with my own name. Get it?), and it aggregrates all the different things I do online into a central location. It’s also got video of me on the very front page. I mention that because apparently everybody loves video and I figured that might convince the fence-sitters that it’s worth the click over there. It’s cool. Oh, and it’s really easy to find because it’s just heatherhead.com. That’s important to know for all those times you’re out and about with a borrowed computer and you’re thinking, “Crap! I don’t have my bookmarks. How am I going to find out what Heather’s been doing for the past 15 minutes?” and you can just say, “Oh yeah. I know her name. Add a dot com and I’m there. Woot!” You see? You’re welcome.

Oh, and for anyone who has already seen this on Facebook and whatever, I’m sorry for bugging you about it. I’ll probably bug you some more today as I post it on my other blogs. But then I’ll stop. That will be it. After that, if you want to know something that’s going on at heatherhead.com, you’ll have to go there directly. K. Go check it out now, if you like. You can totally subscribe if you want, and I won’t think you’re a stalker, though subscribing to that feed is exactly what a stalker would do, but I’m the trusting sort so I’ll assume you just think I’m awesome and want to see all the funny, cool, awesome stuff I’m doing every day.

And on Tuesday we’ll return to our regularly scheduled program here at Curiosity Cat. New funny stuff! See ya then!

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I’ve been at it all weekend, building this site. Most of that time has been devoted to trying to get social media integrated into the site. I still haven’t figured that out. But I did figure this out:

If you’re here, it’s because you care about what’s going on in my life. Wow. That’s pretty potent stuff. Thank you.

Which also means this:

I can post almost anything, and you’ll be glad to hear about it because, well, you care about me. That pretty much makes us friends, except the part where you don’t necessarily tell me about your life too. Which you can totally do in the comments and I will totally read them and it will almost be like a conversation. Grab a coffee and let’s talk. I’ll just look at this gratuitous cute photo of my son and our friend’s daughter, and muse on the differences between boys and girls while you’re gone.

Everett and Jannie by the pond

Got coffee? Okay. The first thing I’m going to do is add a bunch of categories, so you can sort through stuff if you like and only listen to ramblings on topics that interest to you (ohmygoodness this is BETTER than friendship). Topics may include: Fiction (my little stories and half-stories and ill-conceived story ideas), Life Updates (just stuff about, you know, what I’m doing, stories about the kids, cute stuff, funny stuff, just stuff about us), and… well, that’s all I can think of at the moment. I’ll add more maybe. Some of them will probably already be there by the time you read this.

AND, because I installed this nifty little digest plugin thingy (that’s the technical term), sometimes this random rambling or whatever will be at the top of the daily digest, which I’ve changed so that it now comes out at night instead of morning, you know, so I can write about my day before I hit “publish.” And then at the bottom there will be a list of everything else I wrote or uploaded or whatever that day. Which kind of defeats the whole point of being able to sort through which bits you want to listen to. Sorry about that.

Anyway. If you’re here, thank you. And watch out. Once I get going I can seriously run my mouth. Be sure to step in and get your words in edgewise in the comments!

Part Three in the Making of Minecraftia Whitespire (or whatever it is we’re calling it): Whew. We’re in hour 17,642 (I’m pretty sure that’s an accurate count) of the project. It would probably go faster if I didn’t suck at technology. And if I weren’t always shouting at people for my own mistakes. Here’s me talking about my crucial importance to this project, and demonstrating my superb technical abilities.You can view Part One here: http://youtu.be/NCDHMyaEJis
And Part Two here: http://youtu.be/203_c6hlMEw

Part Two in the “Making of Minecraftia: Magician King Music Video” series, “Zombies in the Hedge Maze” shows what happens when you spawn monsters inside, well, in the hedge maze. Also, some warm and fuzzy moments about the joys of working together as a family.Part One is available here: http://youtu.be/NCDHMyaEJis

Mostly, this is here so I can fill up my tag cloud because I think tag clouds are cool.

I’ll also post here whenever I post elsewhere (except for clients–confidentiality agreements and all), so if you want to keep up with me all in one place, this is it. Subscribe on the right. I think. I’ll check my widgets.

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Curiosity Cat is my online personality, and also the name of my humor blog where I write about homeschooling and homesteading, free range parenting, and living with chickens. It’s kinda funny. Says me.